the hard sciences that we have too few in terms of graduates from our colleges and universities. this bill passed in the house of representatives with 245 votes, and was originally sponsored by my friend and colleague, lamar smith of texas, and is very similar to a piece of legislation i myself have introduced earlier this year. the goal of this legislation is one that i think is -- enjoys broad bipartisan support, and that is to help the united states retain more of the highly skilled immigrants who come to study at our colleges and universities. in particular, this bill would make eligible for a green card those who graduate in the stem fields who get a master's degree or a ph.d. and so we would not add to the net number of green cards that would be eligible, there is 55,000 diversity lottery visa green cards that would be substituted for by these stem green cards. now, we all know that america's immigration system is broken, and, unfortunately, it's a self-inflicted wound in many respects, but in particular by diving away highly skilled foreign workers who want to start busine